Girls golf: Kupcho earns BoCoPreps.com Player of Year honor

Jefferson Academy junior was impressive all season leading up to 4A state title

After winning the Class 4A state championship, Jefferson Academy's Jennifer Kupcho is the 2014 BoCoPreps.com girls Golfer of the Year (Paul Aiken / Daily Camera)

Every golfer has a different approach and a different thought process around the course.

For most, that changes on a round-to-round if not a shot-to-shot basis. The good ones find something that works and stick with it.

For 2014 BoCoPreps.com Player of the Year Jennifer Kupcho it was simple. Her and father/coach Mike Kupcho takes one look at the scorecard that day, finds the course rating, and tells her to aim for that.

The course rating for most courses is right around even par but can vary based on the difficulty of the course.

You beat it, great. If not, find a way to get better.

"It keeps me focused on that number instead of worrying about all of the competition," Jennifer Kupcho said.

How well did it work?

The Wake Forest commit played every round of her season, with the exception of the final round of the Class 4A state tournament at Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs, at or under par.

And you will have to forgive her for not doing so on that Tuesday. She entered the final of the state tournament with a nine — yes, nine — shot lead on the field.

"The conditions got kind of tough and I think that is why you saw some of the scores of the others players go up," said Mike Kupcho, whose son Steven just completed his junior season at Northern Colorado and was an America Sky All-Conference selection.

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"The back nine of that course goes around the lake and it got pretty windy and the winds were kind of swirling and a lot of the players had difficulty with that. (Jennifer) seemed to manage it pretty well and the other part of it was that the greens were kind of slow and grainy and I think that threw a lot of the other players off."

Even with her huge lead, over her teammate Mariah Ehrman as it turned out, Jennifer Kupcho just had one thing going through her mind.

"Just to be that far ahead was kind of a breathtaking moment, where you don't have to completely worry about the next day but you still want to play well so you don't look like an idiot winning," she said. "You still have to go out and play, but it definitely takes a lot of pressure off.

"I was still trying to shoot even so that I could say I shot even or under par in every high school tournament, so that was in my mind and I put that pressure on myself. Obviously that didn't happen."

After two straight seasons of top-five finishes at state, including last year when she assumed the tournament was hers only to have Montrose's Kala Keltz fire a 2-under par 70 at Broken Tee to come from behind and win by two shots, Jennifer Kupcho was on a mission to claim the state title.

She never lost a Metro League tournament (most were nine hole events) and in the bigger tournaments or invitationals was far and away the best player in the field, which often included 5A players.

"She just seemed pretty determined this year and you saw that with all the tournaments," Mike Kupcho said. "She didn't lose a tournament the whole season."

A regular on junior events around the country (she played in the USGA's Women's Amateur and Pub-Links tournaments last summer as well as the junior girl's amateur), Jennifer hopes that momentum of a successful spring season will carry over.

"It means a lot and it means I can move on and just do bigger and better things and hopefully place high in a national tournament or even win one," she said. "It's not always going to happen, but I just try and dot he best you can and that's what I'm trying to do in my summer season now."

Already the clear favorite to repeat as medalist next year when the state tournament moves to the other side of the Continental Divide on the Western Slope, Jennifer Kupcho's gameplan will be eloquently simple.

"I just need to go out and play my game well like I did this year, go out and play to the course rating and just play my best and see if anyone else can keep up with me and hopefully I can get another one," she said.

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